We’ve all been there. The instant-gratification generation tempted with a way to make their social media account look 100 times more credible for under $20 is dangerous. Who wouldn’t consider it?
Some of us may have given into that temptation (it was too good to be true after all) and now, months later, after the initial excitement and sense of false accomplishment has worn off, we need to access the demographics of our followers to better tweak our customer avatars. Problem is: there’s a huge chunk of followers from India that have never interacted with your page and are either click farm employees or robots (what’s the difference?).
So how do you proceed? How do you move forward, generate social interaction on your page and send potential customers to your website?
1. Start Over
You messed up! It takes a big man (or woman) to admit their mistakes but sometimes the best course of action is to simply start from scratch. You can easily create a new social media page for your business in a matter of minutes and start with a nice, clean slate.
While this isn’t technically “recovering” from buying followers, it remains a solid option. If you didn’t have a ton of real followers to begin with, there’s not much downside to simply starting over. Don’t forget to back up any valuable content you have from the original page to re-use on the new one in the beginning (you’ll want to have some solid info posted if you expect anyone to follow your new-born page).
2. Follow-First Campaign
Social Media platforms like Twitter offer a unique way to get your brand in front of potential followers individually. The secret? Follow them first.
Consider the way the twitter platform is designed: Each user receives a notification every time someone follows them. Naturally, when you follow the right user (more on that later), they will become intrigued and click to view your profile.
If your profile tickles their fancy, so to speak, the user is likely to follow you back. You’ve just converted a cold call into a warm follower by simply having an interesting profile and making the first move. The more valuable the content you post, the more this warm lead will heat up. But how do you find the right followers to begin with?
3. Targeting Followers
Several tools such as Tweepi and TweetAdder allow you to target followers of pages similar to yours and follow them first. While this is a great way to find general followers in your industry, ideally you want users who will engage with your content the most.
By rolling up your sleeves and manually following users who already engage with similar pages, you open the door to massive potential reach for your content.
For example, one of the pages I run in the surf industry started only following users who were engaged with posts on the Surfer Magazine Twitter account (engaged= favorites, shares, or responses). The results were incredible, including an increase in tweet engagement on our page from 2500 to over 50,000 per month. Finding the right users to share your content helps your page grow exponentially and, as a result, get your message in front of more of the right eyeballs.
4. Retargeting
While new followers are great for your social media page, don’t forget about the end result-conversions. The reason you want high engagement on your page in the first place is to send followers to your site and hopefully have them buy something from you. Keep the end goal in mind when deciding where to allocate your time managing different aspects of your page.
Most major social media platforms have retargeting capabilities, with Facebook leading the way. Retargeting promotes your posts to specific users who have already interacted with your brand (either on your website, via your email list, or both) and an optional “Lookalike Audience” which is a group based off of the demographics from your original list of retargeting prospects.
While retargeting is a paid advertising option on SM platforms, the results speak for themselves: According to Wishpond, a website visitor who’s been retargeted with a display ad is 70% more likely to come back and convert. Retargeting also brings 26% of consumers with abandoned carts back to finalize a sale.
In conclusion, while buying social media followers is never a good idea, it is possible to recover. By strategically following new users, taking advantage of retargeting, or simply starting from scratch you can still build up a solid page despite your past click-farm woes. We all make mistakes in business and in life, but the option always remains to turn things around with smart planning and hard work.